1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for associating layout contents with templates in accordance with the priority levels (priority attributes) of the contents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known examples of document layout processing technology include a technology for automatically laying out the contents of a document in a template in accordance with predetermined layout rules.
The automatic layout technology executes a layout process by using contents and a template having content placement regions and associating the contents with the content placement regions.
Such an automatic layout technology is utilized by a system typified by a variable print system and is broadly used in the field of one-to-one marketing.
One of the objects of the automatic layout technology is to create documents customized for individual customers to respond to customer needs. To achieve this object, a technology of setting priority levels to a template in the automatic layout process. This technology allows a content to be placed in a content placement region given priority to be displayed larger than that placed in the other content placement regions (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-122487).
However, for the above-described known layout process using priority, it is necessary that the template and the contents are associated. Therefore, in a situation in which the association of a template and contents cannot be made in advance, a layout process using priority cannot be made. Examples of the situation in which the association of a template and contents cannot be made in advance include a case in which a large number of templates are used and a case in which a template is automatically generated.
The use of a large number of templates is used to present a large number of layout results. The automatic generation of a template is often adopted to prevent storage of a large number of templates or to generate much more layout results. In other words, to present a large number of layout results or to automatically generate a template, it is difficult to perform a layout process utilizing priority setting.